Mining Equities Report: Cash is King?

A major objective of many investors active in the natural resources sector
is to diversify away from the fiat-based world of finance and credit-dominated
sectors such as banking, insurance, retail, and most manufacturing. These investors
want exposure to hard assets and not soft ones. Today they desperately hope
that commodity prices will soon recover given the large losses just about every
natural resource portfolio has incurred over the past few months, the last
two in particular.

The fall in commodity prices has created an environment that has made it very
challenging for resource companies, mining equities in particular, to obtain
financing for exploration and project development. It seems cash, not metal
in the ground, is king. How ironic that the one asset natural resource investors
are trying to diversify away from - the U.S. dollar and its troubled competitors
- is the very asset that mining equities need the most right now. It turns
out that drilling contractors, engineers, geologists, and miners all still
prefer to be paid in paper money.

Due to the simultaneous reduction in market liquidity and commodities prices,
metal exploration and mining companies that need to raise funds to finance
their activities are facing the prospect of substantial share dilution or the
possibility of losing their property interests if they cannot meet contractual
spending commitments. We believe there has to be a very compelling reason to
own cash-strapped companies in this market.

Conversely, companies that are not in need of financing have an important
margin of safety in the current environment. Should metal and commodity prices
stay weak for a long period of time-something that is not impossible during
a bull market as the historical example of the mid-1970s demonstrates- such
a margin of safety could turn into a major advantage.

Indeed, if the markets were efficient and logical, we should expect that mining
equities with lots of cash and other liquid assets would trade at significant
premiums to their cash-strapped peers. But that doesn't appear to be the case
at the moment.

In early August of this year things did not look quite as bad, but we had
already started to notice that the market capitalizations of several mining
equities were approaching their cash positions. This situation piqued our curiosity,
so we placed these companies on our radar. To our surprise, their prices continued
to fall so that now in many cases they now trade at a steep discount to their
breakup value (the estimated amount of cash that could be distributed to shareholders
if all assets and liabilities are liquidated and the company is broken up).
Compellingly, many of these companies have attractive property holdings -some
joint ventured with majors- that are currently being assigned a zero value
by the market.

Thus was born the idea for our inaugural Mining
Equities Report, the title of which -- "Cash is King?" -- reflects the
strange contradiction that the one asset in greatest need, cash, seems to
actually be more of a burden than an asset to some mining equities. While
this situation is perplexing, we feel that it is only a matter of time before
the most astute natural resource investors begin to realize that the market's
present foolishness obscures a rare opportunity. With blood running in the
streets, now seems like the best time to beat the smart crowd to that realization.

The dollar signs wouldn't stop dancing in our minds, so we were left with
no choice but to examine several hundred mining equities, both explorers and
producers, to plot their cash and liquidity positions against their capital
requirements. We discarded companies that still have substantial value attributed
to their projects because those values could evaporate should fear continue
to run rampant in the hearts of investors. Though some of you may protest that
we have erred in casting aside some extremely undervalued companies, we suspect
that the value of fiat money could fare better than the value of metal in the
ground for a while yet. That bold assessment still left us with more than 30
companies that deserve closer examination. We detail these companies in our inaugural
report.

We would like to point out that our
report is not a comprehensive list of mining equities with breakup value
exceeding market cap. because such a calculation is extremely difficult to
make given the large fluctuations in the prices of mining equities recently.
Rather, our report should be viewed as a cross-section of interesting opportunities
to explore further. We believe it contains something for every natural resource
investor.

Some of the mining equities in our
report possess a cushy cash position that is not contractually committed
to be spent in the near term. Others have virtually no cash requirements
because a separate company (for example, through a joint venture) is paying
for all exploration expenditures and sometimes even covering administrative
expenses. Many of these companies have projects of significant merit and
other assets unaccounted for in our calculations because they have been given
zero value by the market. After all, who are we to argue with the market?

Ultimately, our report does
not answer the underlying question: Cash is King? Only time will do that. But
we believe there is a reasonable basis to conclude that some of companies in
our report are positioned to benefit, relative to other mining equities, regardless
of where the market heads next: up, down, or sideways.

To learn more about The Metal Augmentor's debut "Mining Equities Report: Cash
is King?" -- available for purchase for just $87 -- please visit us at: http://www.metalaugmentor.com/mer.php

About The Metal Augmentor

The Metal Augmentor is a new service being launched in the next few weeks
at www.metalaugmentor.com. The
main purpose of The Metal Augmentor is to aid both new and experienced investors
in navigating the fascinating, dangerous, and rewarding world of investing
in physical metals and mining equities. Our focus will be on gold and silver,
but we will also provide in-depth coverage of the other major metals.

Portions of the service will be devoted to investors who buy gold and/or silver
in its various forms (ETF, bullion, allocated account, etc.) for price appreciation.
Other portions will appeal to people who buy bullion to hold in their own possession
for the purpose of preserving their wealth or buying power against fiscal irresponsibility
by fiat-wielding governments.

A key feature of The Metal Augmentor will be the detailed coverage of mining
equities from junior explorers to major mining companies. Our unique approach
will avoid making outright buy and sell recommendations (except in special
reports that focus on individual situations) but instead provide relevant and
timely information and insights so that each investor can confidently make
his or her own investment decision. Perhaps the most valuable feature of The
Metal Augmentor will be exclusive coverage of the basis in gold and silver
as taught by Professor Antal E. Fekete.

The Metal Augmentor and Augment Partners, Inc. are headed up by Tom Szabo
and David Zurbuchen.

Tom Szabo has co-founded several precious metal related businesses and investment
funds, invests for his own account and runs the website at www.silveraxis.com,
a destination enjoyed, reviled, visited and ignored by literally thousands
of silver and gold investors, not to mention a big shot industry know-it-all
from time to time.

The Metal Augmentor and Augment Partners, Inc. are headed up by Tom Szabo
and David Zurbuchen.

David Zurbuchen is the editor of two natural resource focused websites, provides
research for several investment portfolios, and writes a monthly premium newsletter
focused on mining equities and the metals markets.